2012/11/05 by Romain Bachelard, F. Staniscia
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Chemical physics #Competition (biology) #Condensed matter physics #Field (mathematics) #Materials science #Mathematics #Mean field theory #Metastability #Modulation (music) #Monotonic function #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Range (aeronautics) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.86.051134
published in Physical Review E 86(5), 051134 (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2012/11/05 · openalex publication_date 2012/11/26 · arxiv updated 2015/06/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate the canonical equilibrium of systems with long-range forces in competition. These forces create a modulation in the interaction potential and modulated phases appear at the system scale. The structure of these phases differentiate this system from monotonic potentials, where only the mean-field and disordered phases exist. With increasing temperature, the system switches from one ordered phase to another through a first-order phase transition. Both mean-field and modulated phases may be stable, even at zero temperature, and the long-range nature of the interaction will lead to metastability characterized by extremely long time scales.